61“And there shall arise after them seven years of
famine....
“... And God will shortly bring it to pass” (Genesis
41:17–20, 22–26, 28–30, 32).
Get Our Houses in Order
Now, brethren, I want to make it very clear that I am
not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of
famine in the future. But I am suggesting that the
time has come to get our houses in order.
So many of our people are living on the very edge of
their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings.
We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome
swings in the markets of the world. The economy is
a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta
or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world.
It can eventually reach down to each of us as
individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather
ahead to which we had better give heed.
I hope with all my heart that we shall never slip into
a depression. I am a child of the Great Depression of
the thirties. I finished the university in 1932, when
unemployment in this area exceeded 33 percent.
My father was then president of the largest stake in
the Church in this valley. It was before our present
welfare program was established. He walked the floor
worrying about his people. He and his associates
established a great wood-chopping project designed
to keep the home furnaces and stoves going and
the people warm in the winter. They had no money
with which to buy coal. Men who had been affluent
were among those who chopped wood.
War ning against Consumer Debt
I repeat, I hope we will never again see such a
depression. But I am troubled by the huge consumer
installment debt which hangs over the people of the
nation, including our own people. In March 1997
that debt totaled $1.2 trillion, which represented
a 7 percent increase over the previous year.
In December of 1997, 55 to 60 million households
in the United States carried credit card balances.
These balances averaged more than $7,000 and cost
$1,000 per year in interest and fees. Consumer debt
as a percentage of disposable income rose from
16.3 percent in 1993 to 19.3 percent in 1996.
Everyone knows that every dollar borrowed carries
with it the penalty of paying interest. When money
cannot be repaid, then bankruptcy follows. There
were 1,350,118 bankruptcies in the United States
last year. This represented a 50 percent increase
from 1992. In the second quarter of this year, nearly
362,000 persons filed for bankruptcy, a record
number for a three-month period.
We are beguiled by seductive advertising. Television
carries the enticing invitation to borrow up to
125 percent of the value of one’s home. But no
mention is made of interest.
President J. Reuben Clark Jr., in the April 1938
general conference, said from this pulpit, “Once in
debt, interest is your companion every minute of
the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away
from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to
entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you
get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its
demands, it crushes you” (in Conference Report,
Apr. 1938, 103).Live within Your Means
I recognize that it may be necessary to borrow to
get a home, of course. But let us buy a home that
we can afford and thus ease the payments which
will constantly hang over our heads without mercy
or respite for as long as 30 years.
No one knows when emergencies will strike. I am
somewhat familiar with the case of a man who was
highly successful in his profession. He lived in
comfort. He built a large home. Then one day he was
suddenly involved in a serious accident. Instantly,
without warning, he almost lost his life. He was left
a cripple. Destroyed was his earning power. He faced
huge medical bills. He had other payments to make.
He was helpless before his creditors. One moment
he was rich; the next he was broke.
Since the beginnings of the Church, the Lord has
spoken on this matter of debt. To Martin Harris
through revelation He said: “Pay the debt thou hast
contracted with the printer. Release thyself from
bondage” (D&C 19:35).
President Heber J. Grant spoke repeatedly on this
matter from this pulpit. He said:
“If there is any one thing that will bring peace and
contentment into the human heart, and into the
family, it is to live within our means. And if there is
any one thing that is grinding and discouraging
and disheartening, it is to have debts andDEBT